The famous White chocolate tiramisu shortcake.

How did I come with an idea of combining a Tiramisu and a shortcake?? I think a saw a shortcake picture and the flash came up. Yeah, I'm always lost in my ideas and I'm always thinking about 1000 things at the same time and some of the ideas actually end-up being good ideas :D

So basically, for the tiramisu base, I took the idea of James Martin ( gotta give the credit) of combining a Sabayon to the mascarpone cheese.

Since this cake doesn't require any baking, I kinda went with the tumb :p.

I'm an accountant, so the equation of the cake is simple

(Sabayon + mascarpone) + melted white chocolate + folding whipped cream + dipped ladyfinger in a strawberry coulis = cake.

Sabayon

So I took 5 egg yolks, about 100gr of sugar ( 3/4 of a handful), a splash of Grand Marnier ( it enhances berries flavor) and whisk the mixture in a stainless steel bowl over steams ( bain-marie). Basically, you don't want your egg yolks to cuddle, so just whisk the damn thing continuously and vigorously for about 10 min. you want you mixture to tripple the size in volume by incorporating air.

this step is the first layer of flavor, you can add whatever you want, play with liquors ( kahlua, grand marnier, amaretto, whatever, vanilla essence, almond essence or even rose water ( not my personnal choice ))
Sabayon + mascarpone ( 474g)

Take a big spoon of the mascarpone and mix it in the sabayon to temper the mixture and it makes it easier to mix after with the rest of the cheese.
Melted white chocolate
Melt the white chocolate with a bain-marie, this way you don't burn the chocolat. To liquify it, just add a splash of milk. At this step, I melted 100g, it's up to you, I've tasted step one and it was already sweet.

Here is another layer of flavor, you can add whatever you want like melted chocolate, fruit coulis, whatever you want, be creative!

Whipped Cream
Since it was really sweet, I whisk 500 ml of cream (35%) till it has soft speaks, not totally whipped, because the cream will separate from the mixture. Then at this step, you ''fold'' the cream in the mixture, till it's homogenous.

Here you can add sugar if you want, but the mixture was already very sweet, because of the white chocolate. So just TASTE. When I do the classic tiramisu with coffee flavor, I like to dilute some instant coffee and add a shot of coffee liquor and a little bit of sugar.
Strawberry coulis

I took a box of 475g of fresh strawberry that was very sweet and not sour, and reduce it to a coulis in a blender with a shot of Grand Marnier, I didn't sweet it up, because the fruit was already very tasty. ( Let the ingredient speak by itself). After the coulis is done, I've passed it through a sieve to have a smooth coulis.
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THE BUILDING

I took a box of ladyfingers, I don't remember the size of it, it has like approx. 48? So take a lady finger, dip it quickly in the coulis and layer it in a big dish, pan, or whatever you want. Make a layer, then put a layer of your cream. Rinse and Repeat.

You can eat it right away, but I like to make the cake sit overnight so the ladyfingers absorb all the moisture and become very soft.

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So don't follow the recipe by the letters, try to create your own flavor like chocolate, mango, raspberry, lemon, whatever you want. Remember the basics and do whatever you want.

What's fun is that you CAN'T FAIL this recipe. The downside is that it cost a lot, like 30$ to make, but you will bring smile to everyone that eats it and that's priceless. An alternative for the mascarpone cheese is cream cheese with 31% fat, the one they use to make cheesecake. IMO, never compromise on the quality of ingredients hehe.

Bon appétit!

PS: FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT, CALORIES DO.